1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure generally relates to input and control of quilting machines, and more particularly to an X-Y encoder selectively locatable adjacent to a portion of material on a quilting machine, and more particularly to an X-Y encoder having a transparent sensing zone.
2. Description of Related Art
While quilting has traditionally been a manually intensive activity, there are numerous computer controlled systems for forming stitches in a fabric. These computer controlled systems can impart elaborate stitching patterns to a fabric.
For fabric bearing a pattern or having previously applied appliques, it is important to align the fabric with the computer controlled system. That is, while the computer controlled system can provide accurate and reproducible stitching, such accuracy is of little value if the stitching is not located in the intended place.
In computer controlled systems, an operator moves the sewing head to a multiplicity of locations relative to the fabric and initiates a read of the location to create a corresponding multiplicity of reference points. However, this process is time consuming and again labor intensive. In addition, the large number of generated reference points leads to errors as the inputting process is not error free.
Therefore, the need exists for a system and method of aligning preexisting patterns with a computer controlled system. The need also exists for inputting existing patterns of, or on, a fabric into the computer controlled system, so that the computer controlled system can cooperatively impart the computer controlled stitching to the fabric. A further need exists for accommodating different quilt blocks within a given quilt.